


Following the Stars Home

by inadistantworld



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Space, Background Grog/Keyleth, Background Vax/Scanlan, Cheesy, Cliche, F/M, Found Family, M/M, alternate universe - astronauts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-02-19 21:58:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13133049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inadistantworld/pseuds/inadistantworld
Summary: They are the best of the best in the Tal'Dorei Aeronautics and Space Administration. Seven astronauts who can't think of anywhere else they'd rather be than exploring the cosmos with each other. Though exploring has become stagnant as the funding has dropped in recent years. Until one day they receive a message, one that sounds like a call for help, just one system over. And now it's an entirely new game.





	1. Origins

**Author's Note:**

> I love Space and I love Vox Machina and I love Perc'ahlia and I don't know why I didn't do this earlier  
> Also Happy Holidays

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's about where you come from.

The Tal’Dorei Aeronautics and Space Administration. Where the best and brightest in the country worked together to reach the final frontier. It was more than a job, more than a career, it was a life. And the elite of the elite, the best of the best, the ones who had spent months on other planets gathering samples, studying storms, understanding the solar system they lived in, they called themselves the Super High Intensity Team (yes, it was abbreiviated to the S.H.I.T.s, no it was not an accident). Officially they were Vox Machina. Uriel had pushed them to take an official name that wasn’t quite as vulgar if they were going to be in the news so damn often.

They were a team, they were the best of friends, they trusted each other quite literally with their lives. But they all had their own reasons for signing up in the first place. They didn’t meet by chance, they didn’t happen to wander into the same grocery store, they met through the drive they had. They were brought together because nothing was going to stop them from getting on that shuttle.

Percy had joined because he wanted to create. He wanted to invent, to learn, to stretch his mind to its limits and be rewarded with something nobody else would ever have. In all honesty, Percy wanted to show off.

Vex went into it because she wanted to get away. In all fairness, she was running. She was still running, but now it wasn’t running from something but running to something. Now it was a need to see more. And no small part of it was the fascination with flight.

Vax had followed his sister. Not in a lonely or spiteful way, though few people would say Vax wasn’t lonely before meeting the rest of his team. He followed Vex purely because she had been the most important part of his life, there was no sense staying behind if she wasn’t. It had been the best decision he ever made.

Keyleth wanted to grow. One could argue that there are many ways to grow, many places to learn, many things she could have done to be better, but she had set her mind on TDASA. There was nothing that demanded someone to be better than space.

Grog was not a simple man in the idea that he was dumb, but he had simple goals. Grog Strongjaw was an adventure seeker at heart. Sure, space was fascinating and yeah it was the final frontier and of course it was important or whatever, but what Grog saw in the night sky was something that would keep him on his toes. There was no proper preparing for space, you could do all the tests you wanted, but once you were up there you were on your own. And it made Grog’s blood pump.

Pike didn’t exactly follow Grog, not like Vax followed Vex, but when Grog said he was going Pike said she was too. Most people would see the reason as Pike taking responsibility for him, like she needed to watch over him, but what it wasn’t that at all. Grog said, “Let’s go to space,” and Pike said, “Hell yeah!” Because Pike was an adventure seeker in her own right, and she would not turn down a chance to see new worlds.

And Scanlan? Let’s be honest. Scanlan went because he wanted to fuck the aliens.

 

“I’m going up there someday.” Vex’ahlia, while only seven years old, had more conviction than any adult she’d ever met.

Vax’ildan, who was lying on the grass beside her and staring up at the vast night sky with her, only nodded. They were supposed to be quiet, they hadn’t told their mother they were sneaking out to look at the stars for the night.

“I mean it,” she reiterated firmly.

It was not the first time she had sworn she would, in fact Vax couldn’t remember anything else she had wanted to be. And whenever someone asked Vax what he wanted to be when he grew up, he only ever shrugged. There wasn’t anything better sounding than an astronaut but he didn’t want to sound like a copycat.

“Are you going without me?” He asked quietly, nervously.

She sat up and looked at him with a deep frown. “No. Are you not coming?”

“I don’t want to copy you,” he said honestly and watched a light flash across the sky. He silently made a wish that he and his sister would always be together.

“It’s not copying dummy, there’s more than one person in the rocket. You’d be like my sidekick!”

He laughed and sat up with her, “No way, you’d be mine! I’ll be the Captain and you’ll be the First Mate!”

“That’s pirate ships, not space ships!”

“Vex’ahlia and Vax’ildan you better be in your beds by the time I get up there!” Their mother called from the house. It wasn’t an unkind or angry warning, but one a loving mother gives to her perhaps too adventurous children.

Vex and Vax smiled at each other with wide toothy grins that showed the same missing tooth and ran to the house. Vax boosted his sister up who then threw down the makeshift rope from the window so he could follow up after her. When Elaina walked into their bedroom the lights were off and the two were lying in their beds, giggling and pretending to be asleep.

 

While the desire stayed Vex soon learned not to talk about it after their father took custody of them. It wasn’t a realistic job, nor was it one to be respected in the way a politician or a doctor would be. It was a job for smart people who were too stupid to find a better career.

While Vex had spent most of her early years looking at the stars, she spent all of her teenage ones studying them. It was a private hobby, books Vax _happened to find_ on the stars and space and the planets he would bring to her and she would hide them in their room, but she didn’t explore it outside of their private space. And while Vax subtly encouraged her to continue on with it she never asked him to go with her and she stopped saying she would go.

It wasn’t until they had run away from their father after one of their fights and returned to their home only to see the charred remains of their apartment building that Vex brought it up again.

“Did you mean it, Vax? When you said you would go with me?”

Vax didn’t ask what she meant. From the way her face was tilted up to the sky and her hands were clenched so tightly at her sides that her knuckles were bleach white he knew what she was thinking. “Of course. I wouldn’t let you go without me, someone’s got to keep you out of trouble.”

“But would you like it? Would you hate me for taking you away from here? From our home? Our mother? Our entire lives?” Vax pretended not to see the tears spill over or hear the tremble in her voice, she would only have changed the subject if he had.

“Our home is in ashes, our mother is gone, and my life is with you, Stubby. Besides,” he followed her gaze up to the sky, “seems like a nice place up there. I’d like to see what it’s like.”

 

And so it was decided for them. They would go to space. It wasn’t easy, they were runaways, broke, and would sometimes struggle in their understanding. The eagerness and the drive came naturally, the learning came from the eagerness and the drive.

Percy was different in that regard. He had many brothers and sisters and seemed to fly under the radar in his life, which was somewhat of a blessing in his eyes. It gave him time to learn.

Percy read, studied, invented, there was nothing that he didn’t find interesting. Even if it wasn’t his favorite subject it was something he still was desperate to learn about. Percy wanted to understand the world.

And then he did.

Well, perhaps that is taking it too far. What happened was Percy believed he understood the world, and while learning new tidbits and making new things for the sake of making new things was still enjoyable, it had lost its challenge. Percy felt like he had gone as high as he could go. The problem with the world was that it didn’t change quickly enough for him. And it’s why, after 17 years, Percy finally decided what he wanted to do.

 

Percy shut his book and looked to the window. _It is the same as it was yesterday. But out there is something that has never been seen before. Out there is something there is not book on, the only way to learn about it is to be the one to find it._

And the next morning Percy went to his mother and father and explained how he had decided to go into studying space with the TDASA. Perhaps he would go into engineering, perhaps into studying the results, into the theoretical side, there were hundreds of possibilities. But when Percy first walked into the Headquarters in Emon, he knew. He took one look at a new high definition picture of the seventh planet in the solar system and he knew right then and there. He wanted to be on that planet.

The journey wasn’t easy, never let it be said Percy didn’t earn his place. He worked just as hard for it as anyone else there, and while it may have taken a little longer he loved it just as much as the others.

 

Keyleth’s mother had been an astronaut. It wasn’t expected of her to follow in her mother’s footsteps but her father had cultivated her curiosity, he had even rewarded it.

Most people would have wanted their feet firmly on the ground if their mother had been killed during a launch. It’s the sort of thing that would get to a person, especially a child. Especially someone like Keyleth who was a sensitive kid (and later a very empathetic adult). But instead she saw answers in the sky.

Keyleth was not the most confident person, she was not the strongest, she was not the most charismatic, but she was curious. And her mother had been too. Her mother had been a lot of things Keyleth wanted to be. And as a child Keyleth believed it was the universe that gave her mother all of the things she wanted to be and she believed that she would find her mother in the stars.

As she grew older her idea became less literal but the idea stayed the same. Her father had been the husband to an astronaut, he had plenty to say on the hardships of space. And even more to say on its beauty. He made satellites, it was how her parents met, and pictures of the cosmos were found in every room of their house. Space was hard and it was beautiful, and the two things went together. And her mother had been strong and beautiful. And Keyleth believed it was space that made her like that, that there was something out there that could make her better, that would force her to become someone better. And even more than that she believed that the only way she would be close to her mother again would be to go up there herself.

 

Her father smiled, which suit his face well. He had laugh lines and wrinkles from age that he said came with the joy of living. But there was also a weathered look to him, if you saw him before bed or after a long day you could see the grief and the stress of his job in his eyes and the slope of his shoulders. He was the head of his entire department, still working where he met his wife. Where his wife died.

But now he smiled. “I had a feeling. Your mother did too. She always thought you’d go out there, that you’d want to step foot on a far off planet. She’d be proud of you, you know. That’s a tough school, they don’t take many people.”

Keyleth smiled, “Thanks Dad.” She was holding her acceptance letter tightly with both hands. She hadn’t told him she applied just in case she didn’t get in. She didn’t want to get either of their hopes up. She had even applied for the local university with a plan of getting an engineering degree and no focus in space because she needed a solid backup plan. But they had accepted her, not only accepted her but offered a large scholarship to assure that she go.

Korrin stood up and walked to his room, leaving Keyleth very confused at the dinner table. When he returned he had a small wooden box that he held in hands that looked much older than Keyleth ever remembered. “Your mother used to say that you should never go into space without a peace of earth with you and you should never be on the ground without a piece of the stars. She had two homes and I remember one time I asked her about it and Vilya said, ‘You don’t leave the house without your keys’. Keyleth, this path will change you. It will help you grow and you’ll never be the same. But Exandria has shaped you as well, and you cannot be at your best without both. I guess what I’m trying to say is don’t forget your keys.” He handed her the small box.

Keyleth didn’t try to hide the tears that had already started rolling down her cheeks, there was no point to it. She opened the wooden box and there was a small round pendant on a silver chain. The pendant had a small crescent made of a dark gray and slightly metallic looking stone and the other side, an oval that made up the rest of the circle, was a clear purple gem.

Most astronauts are a little superstitious, it’s hard not to be, and a few years later when Keyleth casually mentioned that she made sure she always had her keys back home on her it spread throughout the training camp like wild fire, soon everybody had some small piece of the earth with them to help them return to the ground safely (not that any of them were full astronauts yet) but Keyleth was one of the few with a key back to the stars.

 

“It’s boring, innit?” Grog’s voice was gruff and his words didn’t really communicate that he understood more than he let on.

Pike frowned, “What do you mean?”

“All this,” he gestured vaguely around him. Pike and Grog were in high school at the time and Grog had just waved vaguely around the cafeteria at school.

“Well, do you want to arm wrestle Groon again?”

Grog looked like he was heavily considering it and then said, “Nah. I did that the other day. He’s not any different. Which is what I’m saying. It’s all the same, Pike. Eventually we’re gonna run out of stuff to do, and then what?”

“Well…I suppose we just have to find more stuff.” Next to Grog, especially back then, Pike looked like one of the smallest people in all of Whiterun.

“But then what? We just wait for somethin’ else?”

She sighed and nodded like she understood what Grog meant, which she likely did because nobody understood Grog like she did. “Well what did you have in mind?”

Grog’s face lit up as they finally got to the part of the conversation he’d been waiting for. “Well I saw this movie the other day. They went to space. And there were all these aliens and all this new shit, every planet was different. And there was fightin’ and adventures and some of the lady aliens were real pretty. So what I’m sayin’ Pike is that I think we should become astronauts and go do all that ourselves.”

An eager smile formed on Pike’s lips and she nodded along as she thought about it more, “Hell yeah, let’s do it!”

 

Grog did everything he put his mind to with his entire being. He could hyper focus on his goals like that, which was helpful when almost everyone else who took being an astronaut seriously had been working on it for a long time by that point. But it didn’t matter how many people said he wouldn’t make it, how many times they told him aliens weren’t real, that the science was harder than it looked, that he’d be better on the ground, Grog never strayed. Some people would have said that meant he was just too stupid to change his mind, in fact a lot of people said that, but it was entirely untrue. Grog simply didn’t want to change his mind and had full faith that if anything was going to be the most exciting thing he’d ever experience, it would be something on another planet.

Pike picked up on her lessons quickly and spent many extra hours helping Grog, which many people said was a waste of time, that he just wouldn’t get it. Pike never once listened to them and most of them left with broken noses that Pike would set for them because she felt so badly for breaking it in the first place. There was no room for doubt in Pike’s heart, which was good because Grog didn’t care what the others had to say, Pike believed he could do it so he believed he could.

They were both right.

 

Scanlan liked to joke that he was born singing, that it scared the shit out of the nurses who delivered him. And it might have been true. Scanlan had always been a performer. He was also under the impression that he was the best (it was up for debate but he had a strong case), and the best wouldn’t be stuck anywhere. Which was really Scanlan’s issue. He was stuck.

 

Dr. Dranzel, Scanlan’s Musical Theory professor (though acted more like a high school friend) was the one who got the ball rolling. “Your good, Shorthalt. Real good.”

“I’m well aware, my friend,” Scanlan’s guitar was up against the wall and he was stretched out on the couch, not even pretending to be working on something.

“Might make a real difference too, a lot of people are going to hear you play. You could go anywhere.” Dranzel got like this sometimes. Rarely of course, the man held the firm belief that if he could get something out of it it was worth having around, but sometimes he would turn a little soft. And usually it made Scanlan have second thoughts.

“I could go anywhere, but I’m right here. Another person or two and we can get that band started, no reason to go anywhere else.”

“Sure, sure. But Scanlan,” he stood up and held his arms out with a wide and charismatic smile, “You should be looking farther than just this town. Hell, you should be planning to go worldwide.”

“Worldwide, huh?” Scanlan looked like he was really considering it for a moment, then laughed and said, “Nah. Not my thing.”

“What? Not big enough for you?”

“Come on Dr.,you know I’m better than that. I should be known throughout the universe, don’t you think?”

He had meant it as a joke, he had expected his teacher and friend to laugh, but Dranzel only shrugged. “If anyone could do it Scanlan, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was you.”

Scanlan didn’t immediately switch majors, but it happened quickly. And Scanlan, while perhaps not the wisest or most serious, did well. After all, he had goals now. He had a universe to amaze.

It’s what he told Dranzel and his friends, that he was going to be the top singer in the universe and he was going to fuck some aliens. But there was more than that. Music, his town, his entire life before this, it was nothing new or special or even vaguely interesting. He was the best at the kind of life he had, but there were thousands of others living it alongside him. Scanlan was looking for a story and for purpose. And it was terrible and cliché, but he felt it in his bones. Whatever he was looking for, it was out there. And he was going to go after it. And if he happened to fuck an alien while he was at it, well that was just a bonus.

 

And, to make seven short stories that made up one longer story into a single sentence: Everyone had a reason and everyone busted their ass to get there.

But that was only how they decided to follow their dream, the beginning of their education. The TDASA is one of the most elite programs in the entire world. And even once accepted, to become an astronaut that actually went into space regularly, and one who actually stepped foot on planets, that was almost impossible. And yet these seven people, who for the most part had never met before, soon became the faces of the space program and would revitalize the nation’s love and fascination for exploration.

Corny, isn’t it? But in all honesty their lives had been a series of clichés for a very long time and they were quite used to things ending up like they would in a movie or a book. Which was probably while what happened a few years into living their dreams, while exciting and unexpected, was not surprising.

 

The planets in their solar system had been thoroughly explored and the S.H.I.T.s had stepped foot on almost all of them. In fact, it hadn’t just been explored it had been almost worn out. There was evidence of single celled life on some of them, but nothing still living and definitely nothing intelligent. But it was old news now, decades old, and they couldn’t get any farther with it and with each passing year it became harder to justify the cost of continuing. It had been a hot topic among them for a while now, and it was what Vex and Vax were talking about one afternoon as they were walking down the hall for one of their training sessions.

“It’s been a while since we’ve been out there,” Vex was trying to sound casual.

“Space junkie,” Vax said with a smile.

She didn’t try and deny it, “Uriel said there’d be cutbacks. I just didn’t think it’d be us.”

“We’ve been through tight times before. We always get it back. And it’s not like we’re totally cut off, we’ve got a launch set up by the end of the year.” It was smart not to attach a date to these things anymore, there were always setbacks. And you never complained about the setbacks, they usually saved your life by spending an extra month or two fixing something.

Vax did his best not to sound worried but Vex could hear the edge in his voice. Nobody knew what was happening anymore, any day Uriel could come down and cut the project entirely.

Vex decided the conversation would only make them both feel worse and decided to change topics. “How’s Scanlan?”

Vax smiled the way he always did when Scanlan was mentioned. Like a man in love. “He’s good. We’re supposed to go out tonight with Grog and Keyleth. Oh, and this weekend he’s got a gig set up, you should bring Percy.”

“Double date with Grog and Keyleth? Where are you going?”

“Paintball. Grog wanted something a little more violent than bowling.”

Vex laughed, “I believe it. It sounds like fun, we’ll have to come along next time.”

“You should. What is it that you’re doing tonight anyways? Some expensive date? A formal ball? Are you eating caviar on a boat?” Percy’s background had been something that used to make Vax wary, they’d dealt with rich people before and it was almost always a terrible experience. If it had been anyone else Vex met, she would have agreed, but when she met Percy she felt that there was something different. She had no reason to think that at first, but she trusted her gut. Eventually Vax’s distrust of him faded as Percy and Vex started dating and now it was simply a joke he liked to bring up every now and then.

“We’re going to the theatre. There’s a show we’ve been trying to get tickets for ages. It’s a musical about the revolution, I think you’d really like it.”

“Oh yeah? I’ll ha—”

There was a screech down the hall as tennis shoes skid along the linoleum and they looked behind them to see a young man barreling toward them.

“My money is on Grog following behind him in about three seconds,” Vex said as she watched the corner behind the boy and listened for the thunderous footfalls of their friend.

Vax looked at his sister with a teasing smirk, “I dunno, he’s looking directly at you, did you accidentally take something shiny from the lab again?”

She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, “It was one time and it _was_ an accident. Mostly.”

“Of course, of course.”

“This hallway seems quite long, doesn’t it?”

Vax smiled as the boy slid to a stop in front of them and doubled over, his hands on his knees, and gasped for breath. “Told you it was about you, sister.”

“Uriel—his office—both of you—now,” he choked out. Vex could see the beads of sweat on his skin from all the effort.

“What did _you_ do?” Vex asked and gave Vax a light shove.

“Didn’t say—” the boy straightened up and put his hands on his hips, looked up at the ceiling as he tried to catch his breath. “He said it was urgent, that he needed you right now.”

“Just us? And he didn’t say why?” Vax asked, dropping the playful tone.

“Please just _go_! I still have to get the others and I don’t have time for this!” And without saying anything else the boy took off running again.

The twins looked at each other curiously and Vex nodded with a determined look that only came around when the situation was dire. “Alright. Let’s go see Uriel.”

 

Their boss wasn’t in his office when they got there, which was unsettling considering how important it seemed to be. The others slowly trickled in, Scanlan being last as always, and then Uriel stepped through the door. His expression was guarded, not even Vex was able to get a good sense of what was going through his mind. He shut the door behind him and sat down at his desk, not even acknowledging everyone in the room for an uncomfortably long time.

“There’s been a change of plans,” he said after a long time.

“Don’t tell me they cancelled our mission.” Vex felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. Percy’s hand found hers and he gave it a gentle squeeze, and while it helped it wasn’t enough. This would be the second one in a row that had not just been pushed back but cancelled entirely.

“In a way. You could also look at it as just being pushed back.” Uriel looked up from his computer at the small team, the small family, in front of him. “We’ve received new information on your next mission. Your efforts will be redirected into a new training schedule while we work on creating the tech for it. We don’t have a date for it, not yet, we’re still in the process of making it possible. But I believe it will be much sooner than the estimates I’ve been getting recently.”

“You’re being really cryptic,” Vax said cautiously.

Keyleth bit her lip and nodded, “You really are.”

“Yes, I suppose I am. We received this message an hour ago.” He turned his computer screen around so they could all see it and there was a click from his mouse as he pressed play.

What they saw was a beautiful creature with light blue skin and long tentacles that framed its face. It spoke slowly but Keyleth and Vex could sense something underneath it, an urgency, a need. Though its words made no sense it seemed to be a call for help.

“Before you ask, yes. It’s very real. We are still conducting tests of course, just to make sure, but I’m telling you right now. This is real. It came from the next system over, farther than we’ve gone before of course, but we’ve been working towards this for years. And now we have the push to get us there. To get you there.”

Nobody seemed able to say anything. Nobody even tried until Pike, in a soft, shocked voice said, “Uriel…this is—”

He had a knowing, but still soft, smile when he said, “I know. And as much as I would like to talk about it, first I must say until this information is publically released you cannot breathe a word. Secondly, effective immediately you are going to be entering a new training program deigned to push you harder than ever before. It will include weapons training as well,” Grog body grew tense as he forced back the urge to do a small victory pump and Keyleth patted his arm, knowing exactly how he would feel about it. “It’s something I can’t stop. Of course the last thing we want is to show up looking like the enemy, but only a fool would show up with nothing. But your training will also include a study of languages which will hopefully aid in translation and a quicker understanding. We have people who will be working on this message around the clock as they try to figure it out. And we’ll get some of the best professors and that sort of thing to help you better prepare for a diplomatic first contact. It may not be exactly what you signed up for—”

“To be fair, sir, this is exactly what we signed up for.” Percy said it with all the determination of a man who had been waiting for something like this.

“Honestly it was the dream,” Scanlan flashed a toothy smile but he felt a tightness in his chest that he usually only felt during a launch.

“We’ll make it happen,” Vax swore.

Keyleth touched her necklace. Grog was already thinking about his new training, a new thing, a new place to be. Pike was just in awe. This was really happening.

And Vex felt like this was it, this was what her entire life had led to, this very moment. From the first time she saw the stars to right now, it had all been for this.

“Yes.” Uriel smiled as he looked them over. “Yes I do believe you will.”


	2. Doubts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's not always a straight path.

It happened suddenly after a few months of their new training. Everyone was deep into their new focuses, learning new things as quickly as they could, practicing old things, working on everything.

And then, one afternoon, Scanlan left.

Vax hadn’t been there to stop him, he was across the country working on part of his training without even reception to call and check in. Vex believed that was part of the problem, that Vax wasn’t there to help him, that Scanlan felt more alone than he had in a very long time.

It came out of nowhere with highlights of, “You don’t care! None of you have ever cared! I’m just the funny little guy keep around!” and “It’s always been about you, about how you want to be in space, about how you had a rough childhood, about how you are doing this! Nobody’s ever asked about me! Nobody’s ever wondered what I want or why I’m doing this! You all just laugh!” There was more, with Scanlan there was always more. But in the end, he left. There was nothing anyone could say, not even Pike, and Vax didn’t even know what had happened.

And Scanlan was just gone.

For three days Vex wallowed, she and Scanlan had been close, they understood each other, or she thought they had. Grog and Pike pretended to be fine. Maybe they were, they made sure nobody went after him right away, they said he needed his space. Percy was angry. Keyleth just hurt. And when Vax was finally able to call and Vex told him what had happened he was in shock, he didn’t say anything for a long time before he just said, “I care.” Vex didn’t have a response for that because she felt the same way.

On the fourth day everyone was angry except for Percy who was mostly irritated.

On the fourth day they met Taryon Darrington.

Tary was Plan B, never actually meant to join up with the A Team, in fact he was never supposed to go into space. Tary’s job was working on the ship itself, but lately he’d moved away from actual construction to something a little more…interesting.

Tary created what he called Doty. Doty was an AI system for the ship. They had AI on their ship before, but nothing of this scale. He’d been working on Doty since Uriel mentioned two years earlier that they were going to need something special to take them outside of their solar system, and Tary was always one to go over the top with the request. Which was how Doty came to be. A fully functional AI, more real than anything else ever created, even without a body, but Tary was working on fixing that issue.

Everybody was still raw from Scanlan, they were quiet and there had been a noticeable drop in their enthusiasm. Which was why Uriel had waited, they needed their time to grieve first. But space waits for nobody, especially when there were people in need. But when Uriel called the team in on the fourth day and there stood Tary, shiny and smiling with golden hair that curled out at the ends and a perfect goatee and expensive clothes, well that just chafed.

“No.” Grog’s voice was hard and he lifted his chin up at Tary. “Look at ‘im. He’s never gone anywhere, he’s all pink and soft.”

“I…have to agree, Uriel. No offense Tary, but you aren’t exactly experienced and this mission, well it’s going to be a lot.” Keyleth touched his shoulder and frowned. “I’m just not sure it’s really for you.”

“Ah! Yes, I see where you’re coming from,” Tary’s smile was huge and bright and his teeth were so perfect it made Vex mad because who did he think he was? “I may not have been up there myself but I have done all my research and I’ve been working on it for years! I’ve been in engineering and design mostly up until now, but I’ve always wanted to be part of a mission, it’s been my dream ever since I was a boy,” Tary paused and looked dramatically off into the distance. “And now it’s coming true.”

Percy shook his head, “It’s not the same thing.”

“Well no, but I understand it all. Probably better than you—”

“I highly doubt that,” Percy said darkly.

“Ah, it may not seem like it but I know these ships very well. I’ve been the head designer on the last two you flew on and I known every intimate detail of those girls,” Tary put his hands on his hips and smiled triumphantly, “That’s while I’ll be good with you all out there, nobody knows your ship better than me. And Doty! I’m the only one who can really get him to work at his full potential.”

“Doty?” Percy arched an eyebrow.

“Yes! Doty will be your new AI, unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.”

“We’ve had AI on the ship, they work fine.”

“You haven’t had Doty. Doty is an invention of mine, you see. A true AI, it learns from experiences and I’ve been teaching it moral lessons to help provide the best options in line with our motives! It’s monumental, there’s nothing like him.”

“You mean your team created Doty.” Percy shook his head, “Uriel, I—”

“No. I mean I made Doty. My team wasn’t included until very recently when the news broke. It was meant to be purely theoretical until we had the funding, but I used my personal funds to begin working on it in my own time. Which is why we have a working prototype now.” Tary dropped his winning smile and adopted something more protected.

“You made something like that? All on your own?” Percy scoffed.

“I did.” Tary said firmly.

And Percy cocked his head to the side and looked at him a little closer, like he was trying to pick him apart without actually touching him. While he did that, Vex decided it was her turn to speak. “There’s no room for him on the team. We don’t need anyone else.”

“In all fairness, Vex’ahlia, your team was quite small beforehand and now with Scanlan gone, well you could definitely use the extra hands,” Uriel said cautiously.

“He’s coming back,” she said firmly but she wasn’t sure if she really believed it.

“And if he does we will discuss his position then, but right now you are in need of someone to fill his place and of all my staff I believe Tary is most suited for you. This is not a discussion, this is an introduction to your new teammate. Now, you still have a long way to go and not much time, so I suggest you all get back to your training. Dismissed.” Uriel waved to the door and slowly they all filed out, Tary bringing up the rear with a wide smile on his face again.

The next day Vax came home.

 

When Vax first looked at Tary he saw nothing but a rich boy who saw a movie about astronauts and decided that was his calling. It may have been true, it may have been unfair, it may have been something else, but it was one of the reasons Vax didn’t like Tary. That added to the fact that even though Scanlan seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth most of his things were still in their apartment except a few things Scanlan packed when he left, but it was almost like he ran out to the store and would be home any second. Other than the fact nobody had heard from him or knew where he was.

Grog was quiet, he didn’t talk about Scanlan, he didn’t seem to hate Tary, instead he was focused on his work and Keyleth because she was, well a wreck. She tried not to be, she tried to help Grog talk about it, tried to band the team together, tried to be what she thought she needed to be (who her mother would have been), but she was in the same boat as the rest.

The day after Tary joined the group he ate lunch with them despite their obvious signals that they weren’t totally fond of him. He told very loud stories about how he had always been fascinated by space, all the things he had built, the training he had done just for this moment, and now he had the chance. And Vax found himself rubbed the wrong way by this man and came up with a plan to put him in his place.

“Grog, what was your favorite part of the early days in your training?” Vax asked as they finished their lunch.

Grog frowned and his eyebrows furrowed as he thought about it. “I really liked going up in those planes with the zero gravity at the beginning, first time floating through the air like that.”

Vax nodded, “That was pretty amazing, but you know what I liked even more?” Grog looked at him curiously. “High-G training.”

Grog balked, “Really? That was—”

Vax flicked his eyes to Tary and then winked at Grog, a silent message between pranksters. “Yeah, it was a great time.”

Grog winked obviously back and said in a dramatic voice, “Right. It was _so_ fun.”

Tary eyed them for a while, looking back and forth suspiciously, “Really? Because I’ve heard terrible things about it.”

Vax’s eyes widened and Percy, who was watching the scene lay out before him, smothered a smirk at the painful display of sincerity from Vax. “What? No! Honestly everyone makes such a big deal about it but it’s not that bad, it’s a lot like a roller coaster. Like I said, one of my favorite parts of the early days. Come on, you’ve got to try it! There’s no better way to start out.”

“I—I don’t know.” Tary, for the first time, seemed nervous, or perhaps overly cautious was a better word.

“You’ll love it!” Keyleth said quickly, probably a little too quickly and a little too eagerly as it clicked for her what they were doing.

What they were doing was an initiation.

“I just ate and—”

Vax clapped his hand on Tary’s shoulder and said, “Like I said, it’s all a big show for the movies and stuff, but it really isn’t that bad.”

Sometimes Vax lied.

They got Tary suited up in a G-suit, designed to prevent what was known as g-LOC, something which would come into play later.

Tary stared at the centrifuge, a large machine that really looked like a giant metal arm with a pod for a person on one end. The man looked absolutely terrified, which as someone who had heard the stories was totally understandable. Though with the way Grog and Vax were smiling and laughing, guiding him to it and telling him not to worry, no one would have guessed there was anything less than fun about the experience. Even Percy and Keyleth were watching on the sidelines with grins and were talking quietly to each other. Pike was working on something in the medical lab, something about space diseases and that kind of thing. And Vex had stopped in to talk to someone before they all took Tary away, so she was nowhere to be seen.

But Tary, while nervous, followed Grog and Vax without anything else to say about it. They helped him into the centrifuge and strapped him in as Vax talked about what would happen. “So, I’m sure you know how this works. This spins really fucking fast to help build a tolerance to high levels of acceleration. Of course in the beginning you won’t have as high a tolerance, but we don’t have a ton of time to get you up to speed with the rest of us so we’re going to start you a little higher than normal. Maybe 6 g?” Vax looked to Grog who nodded with a grin. “But I’m sure you’ll be able to handle it.”

Tary was sitting in the pod with terror in his eyes, “I—”

“Don’t worry about it, pal, you’re going to be just fine.” Vax pat the side of the pod, flashed a smile, and said, “Now you’re going to want to keep your head pressed back against the seat because you don’t want to hurt yourself. Other than that, just try and remember what you’re here to do.” He pat Grog’s arm and said loudly for Percy standing at the controls, “Eyeballs in up to 6!”

Tary took a deep breath and closed his eyes as the arm began to spin.

Faster. And faster. And faster. And—and—

Tary decided it was too fast just about the time his stomach decided it no longer wanted to hold food in it. Unfortunately, due to the helmet and the direction he was going, he didn’t lose the food permanently and almost all of it landed on the inside of the visor with a little back on him.

There are two common terms to describe a person’s relationship to movement with g-force. One is eyeballs out, which means someone is going backwards, this comes from the fact it makes people feel like their eyeballs will pop out of their head. The other is eyeballs in from forward motion, which is from the feeling of their eyes going back in. In reality it is because of blood, nobody’s eyeballs are actually going anywhere, but blood is.

With the different ways blood is moving there are some small differences in how a body reacts from the two directions. For example, eyeballs out results in blood moving quickly from the brain to the eyes, resulting in something known as a red out where your vision would go red for a few moments. Relatively common for untrained people, unpleasant every time. Eyeballs in was the opposite, blood moved away from the eyes to the brain, which at first causes gray out.

“Guys!” Tary’s voice was piercing. “Guys everything’s in black and white!”

Not really black and white, but shades of gray. This only lasts for a little while.

“Don’t worry buddy!” Grog shouted back, “Totally normal!”

Next comes tunnel vision.

“Guys!” He shouted again, panic only rising as he lost the edges completely.

“A little longer! You’re almost there!” Vax yelled over the sound of the machine.

This was about the time Vex heard him as she was walking down the hall and began running to see what the hell was going on.

After tunnel vision, if it’s still going at this point, comes g-LOC.

G-induced loss of consciousness.

Tary was screaming, as anyone who had ever looked at him expected him to, it reminded Keyleth and Grog of a dying llama, and then suddenly he wasn’t.

And then Vex was in the room.

“Stop it!” She shouted, her hands on her hips and glaring at all of them.

Vax waved to Percy who slowed the machine to a stop. By the time it was stopped and Vex went over to check on him he was awake again. And crying of course.

Vex gagged when she saw the inside of his helmet and turned away to look at her family. At least some had the decency to try and look ashamed. “Assholes, all of you. I know it isn’t ideal, I know we miss Scanlan, I know this wasn’t the plan, but this is just shitty of you guys. We don’t have the time to be like this. Do you guys realize that we’re going out there with or without Scanlan? That Tary is now part of our team? We don’t have time for your stupid childish pranks!” She glared at Vax in particular.

Vax shifted his gaze away and said, “He needs to know what he’s going through. I’m taking this seriously, but he’s treating it like it’ll be a fun vacation, a thing to cross of his bucket list. If he can’t withstand 6 gs how does he think he’s going to make it out of our atmosphere?”

“You couldn’t do it at the beginning either,” Vex reminded him lightly, already feeling a little guilty for yelling. “The best thing we can do is help him be better. We’ve got too much on our plate to try and scare him away.”

Now Tary’s sobbing was too shrill and loud to ignore any longer, and when Vex turned to look at him she was pleased to see that he had, for the most part, wiped himself clean (though he didn’t smell particularly good). His eyes were red and his lips were trembling and tears were just streaming down his face, there was snot coming from his nose. He was one of the ugliest criers Vex had ever seen.

“N-no, he’s-he’s right,” Tary blubbered out. “I shoul-shouldn’t be here! My father was-was-was right!” He wailed.

Vex looked back over at her friends again who at the word father all softened, shoulders went slack, a knowing look crossing over them. Keyleth stepped up and touched his arm, Percy sighed and stood beside Vex, took her hand in his, and looked at her like she had just brought home a puppy and asked to keep it. Grog nodded and mumbled something about dads. Even Vax walked up to Tary and sympathetically put an arm around him shoulders, which Vex would never let him live down as there was still vomit on him.

“What did your dad say?” Vax asked as they led him out of the room to the locker room.

“He said it was-that it was stupid and I’d never be able to do it! He doesn’t think I can do anything!”

Tary told his sob story, which was worthy of the tears, and his new team listened sympathetically and told their own terrible parent stories. Vax made a joke about daddy issues being the way to their hearts, Vex pushed him to the shower, Percy even talked to him some about Doty. Nobody would claim friendship yet, but they believed they were a team.

 

It was a few months later when things changed again. Nobody had given up on Scanlan, especially not Vax who still tried to call him sometimes, but everyone had acknowledged that he needed his space. The harder truth to swallow was that nobody had heard anything from him or even about him in a long time.

At least not until the day everyone walked into Uriel’s office, laughing and talking about their day off, and there sat a short, slim man with long hair and a freshly healed scar under his eye.

Scanlan stood up and Uriel cleared his throat before the man started to speak. “Mr. Shorthalt has come back from his vacation.” Vacation. That’s what they had called it at the beginning, they had begged Uriel to not fire him, to make it look like he’d requested time off instead. Just in case. Nobody said anything though, they just looked at Scanlan with open mouths and wide eyes. So Uriel sighed and stood up, “I’m going to get something to eat, why don’t you all catch up?” And then he left.

When the door shut behind him Vex ran up to Scanlan and hugged him tighter than she thought she could. “You idiot,” she said when she pulled back a little and pushed him. “You can’t just drop off the face of the earth like that! We were worried about you!”

Grog and Pike hung back. They’d been like siblings to Scanlan so Vex understood. If Vax had just disappeared for months at first she would have been worried and respectful, but it would have been hard not to be angry when he came back. Percy was wary too. Scanlan had left in their time of need, Scanlan had left when things were starting to get hard, and now he was back? It didn’t sit right with him. Keyleth smiled warmly, Vex could see she hadn’t forgotten how much it hurt for Scanlan to leave, especially in the angry way he did, but she was glad he was back. Tary stood in the back corner, just watching, hiding the numb feeling growing in his chest.

And Vax just stared.

Scanlan smiled at Vex and said, “Yeah, yeah I know. And I’m sorry. I really am. There was just a lot going on and an old friend offered me some work. You know, safe stuff. Here on the ground. And I got scared of this. All of this,” he glanced up at Vax quickly then looked away, “so I just. You know. Ran. But it wasn’t as good as being with you guys. It wasn’t what I wanted.”

“Scanlan,” Vax’s voice broke on the name.

Scanlan patted Vex’s arm and then walked over to his boyfriend, or perhaps ex-boyfriend, he wasn’t sure where they stood anymore. Considering what Vax had mentioned just before he left for his training at the other base, saying “just think on it. You don’t have to answer right now,” and then left before Scanlan could say anything, maybe it was ex-fiancé.

“Vax,” Scanlan bit his lip and stood a foot away, resisting every atom in his body that pulled toward Vax, begging to just hug him, kiss him, touch him again already. “I know I—”

Vax closed the distance and wrapped his arms around Scanlan and hugged him even tighter than Vex had. “Later,” he said quietly, “I can be mad at you later.”

And so Scanlan was back. He was behind on his training but it was nothing long hours and hard work wouldn’t fix. Tary had also been quite far behind in comparison, and now he was a valued member of the team. Or had been.

The next morning Tary didn’t show up for their breakdown.

And he wasn’t at lunch either.

And Percy didn’t see him in what they called their tinkering room, where they worked on little gadgets that might help out there.

He wasn’t around for their study time on languages.

Finally Vex and Percy got tired of waiting around for him to show up and they went to check his room in their apartment (since his father had cut him off they had invited him to stay with them) and found him packing.

“Oh no, not you too. We just got Scanlan back, we’re not losing you.” Vex said firmly and planted herself in his doorway.

“I have to agree,” Percy said calmly, “we just started to like you.” He smiled softly and Tary knew it was just a joke.

“I was filling an empty spot, remember?” Tary was doing his very best not to cry. Again. He’d spent most of the day crying, he was tired of it by now.

Percy shrugged. “Well ship’s not done, we can add another room into it.”

“Or you can sleep in ours there too,” Vex added.

“I was never a permanent member of the team. Uriel said you had a spot available, that he wanted someone to take that place. So I did. But now he’s back and you don’t need me anymore.”

Vex rolled her eyes and walked up to him and grabbed the thin gold chain around his neck and held it up to show him. It was a necklace very similar to the one Keyleth had, not exactly the same, everyone’s gemstone was a different color and the shapes a little different. Part of Keyleth’s had been a meteorite but everyone else’s had a piece of a different planet they had gone to on their missions together. Keyleth had them made for everyone in the group before Scanlan left. It had been hard for her to give one to Tary, but in the end she felt he had earned it, and he was part of the team.

“Keyleth gave this to you because you are a part of the team. She could have kept it for Scanlan but she didn’t. She gave it to you. And come on, this is everything you wanted! We’re not asking you to leave. There’s space on our team for you too.” Vex ruffled his long golden hair and he huffed and grabbed his brush on the table beside him to fix it. “Now unpack and come have dinner with us. We’re going out.”

Percy walked over to Tary’s desk and began scribbling something on a piece of paper there, “And when we come back I wanted to talk about some ideas for Doty 2.0.”

And so Tary stayed with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love my golden boy and I always love AUs where Tary and Scanlan are on the team together. Sorry this took a while and sorry it's not super good, real talk when I planned this little fic I planned for three chapters and so far it's going really well as far as it's following my plans. But I spent a ton of time on chapter three and not so much on chapter two. I know this is labelled as Perc'ahlia and I promise, chapter three is where I put all my good content for them in this fic. I feel really good about how chapter three will come out.  
> Anyways, thanks for reading! Hope you guys like it! Let me know what you think!


	3. Vacation and Liftoff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes rash decisions that come from the heart are exactly what you need.

It was faster than anyone anticipated, only two and a half years after Tary joined the team before they were ready to go. The message had spurred innovation, the translation (a cry for help against an invader) demanded speed, and curiosity did the rest.

Two and a half years passed and a week before the launch the team found themselves feeling a strange calmness. There was nothing left they could do, there was nothing that would change for them in the next week. They could spend every waking hour in classes and simulators, but the truth was this was it. There was no more time. And, for the most part, they felt ready. Nervous of course, but ready.

Uriel felt the same way and decided to give them a few days off, saying that they might never get another one. He didn’t say that in a cryptic way, of course death was very probable, but the way he said it made Vex think he believed they would stay over there. Like even if they could come back they wouldn’t. She wasn’t sure if he was right, but she did appreciate the couple days to visit her favorite haunts before she left.

It was day number two of their four free days and five until launch when someone said it.

“It’ll never look the same.” Pike was staring up at the sky and Vex couldn’t tell if it came from anticipation or sadness.

“They’ll be the same ones technically,” Percy tried to assure her, but everyone knew that wasn’t the issue.

“Our constellations are going to be gone. They’ll have all new ones.” Keyleth had been on the verge of tears all day, and the bar crawl through all their favorite pubs didn’t really help.

Now they were all on the rooftop of Vax and Scanlan’s apartment building staring up at the stars, because it was what space junkies did while they were on the ground. “Are we even going to remember what they look like?” Vex asked quietly, a subtle edge of worry in her voice that made Vax scoot closer to his sister and wrap an arm around her shoulders comfortingly. Percy, who had also noticed it, let them have their moment.

Instead he said, “We’ll remember.”

It was, of course, Grog who came up with the idea on how. “We could get tattoos.” Grog already had many tattoos, he got them for big events in his life. How they related to the event didn’t usually make sense to other people, but he didn’t usually ask for people’s opinions on them.

“Of our favorite constellation?” Tary asked. Tary was lying on a blanket because the roof looked pretty dirty. Where he had gotten the blanket from remained a mystery.

“Yeah, let’s do it.” Scanlan sat up and looked at his friends, “Who knows if they even have tattoos over there? If we want to get them we have to get them now. Who knows if they’ll have anything over there that we have? Like tequila?”

“Are you suggesting we drink more tequila?” Percy asked in an almost sober way.

“Yes! And also tattoos! We have to live our lives like tomorrow they won’t be the same! Because they won’t! Well, they will tomorrow, but—”

“Let’s do it!” Pike yelled and got to her feet. She wobbled for a second and then ushered everyone up with her, and nobody had ever been able to tell Pike no.

 

There were more constellations visible from Exandria than they could count, especially this drunk, but they all had ones that they looked for in the sky.

Pike, who went first, sought The Angel. It made sense considering she had believed in Sarenrae since she was a girl and the constellation was supposed to represent her. It was made up of ten stars which Pike got on her upper arm.

Grog chose Titanstone, which was seven stars that looked like two fists meeting. It had long since been a symbol of war and fighting, but it was also the symbol of inner strength. Perhaps Grog didn’t look at it that way when he chose it, but for hundreds of years people had believed it was a sign of a strong and good-natured soul, willing to protect their home and loved ones with their life. He got it on his shoulder, almost matching with Pike.

Keyleth decided on Alda, the tree. Eight stars that she got on her leg to ground her when she needed it, but also to help her grow.

Tary chose to get The Crown on his shoulder blade, five quick dots to vaguely show the shape of a crown. It was a symbol of loyalty. Tary gave a long speech about how this was his promise to be loyal to them and to always think of them first. It was a nice gesture but the words were slurred and Vex had a feeling he’d wake up tomorrow confused about why his shoulder hurt.

Scanlan got Seivan, the twelve starred storyteller. Seivan was an old legend, a bard who had travelled for years as an adventurer and told his stories for years after. He supposedly was the most talented bard the world had ever seen. Scanlan drunkenly vowed to be the best the universe had seen. Of course he got it on his back because it was the Scanlan way of doing things.

Vax’s favorite flower had always been a snowdrop, and Vex wasn’t surprised when he asked for it on his ankle. Five stars and it was done and he touched it gently, feeling sorrow deep in his chest. Snowdrops would not be out there, but there would be something else.

Percy spent a long time deciding but he finally settled on Lutos, the crow. For people who believed in horoscopes, which Percy did not, those born under it could be egotistical but were often smart and creative and loved hard. When Vex had met Percy she knew exactly what sign he was, and even if he didn’t believe it. Eight stars on his forearm.

And Vex chose The Sun. Not the sun in the sky, but the constellation of six stars that created the Sun in the night sky. Technically, like The Angel, it was meant for a god, for Pelor. (Vax had almost chosen The Raven Feather for the Raven Queen but chose snow drops because he believed he would have the Raven Queen in their new life but would want to remember snow drops as time went on.) Vex never believed she was a particularly _good_ follower of Pelor, but she found a lot of peace through him. In light that chased away the dark, in time that heals wounds, in strength and kindness. And so she chose The Sun. She got it just under her collarbone, over her heart.

And that was how the team, whether they went by the S.H.I.T.s or Vox Machina or just astronauts, marked themselves before they launched.

 

The next day Tary had to be reminded of what happened (he looked quite impressed with himself when Vex told him about the speech) and everyone took pictures of their tattoos. A couple of them posted the pictures to various social media, but the others chose to keep them private. Something purely for them.

The day pressed on. For the most part this day was spent packing. They weren’t allowed to take many things, every pound was another pound that weighed the ship down, and they all had to weigh and justify everything they were taking months in advance. Everything had to be personally inspected by what was essentially a board of higher ups to be voted on as well, which had been terribly frustrating. But it was the act of packing that made it real for all of them.

They each packed clothes. Grog just kind of balled them up and stuffed them deep into the TDASA issued trunk with his name on it. Scanlan had picked mostly ridiculous outfits, which had been an interesting experience watching him explain to the board in a very serious and believable tone why it was so important he bring his owlbear onesie aboard. Most of the others packed their clothes carefully, slowly folding them, even separating the kinds of clothes they were into different sections of the trunk. It reminded Keyleth of when she was packing to go to college, which immediately made her call her dad again.

After their clothes they packed personal items.

Pike packed a small figure of Sarenrae, a photo of JB, another photo of her, Wilhand, and Grog shortly after they adopted him, an extra pair of boots she was fond of, and a few other small items.

Grog packed a pair of brass knuckles because “you never know when you’ll need them”. He also took his favorite belt, his favorite book with werewolves, and some snacks like beef jerky that they allowed him to have because it was hard to look at Grog and tell him no.

Keyleth brought a few empty journals, not composition books for scientific notes, that was already included in the weight, but something for herself, a diary. She also brought seeds for some of her favorite flowers to grow when they set up a small greenhouse.

Tary brought some of his haircare products, his extremely high-quality beard trimming kit, and extra clothes. He also brought the beginnings of his book.

Scanlan was bringing his guitar, a couple…personal magazines, and another onesie.

Vax brought his favorite pair of boots (which his sister tried to sneak into her trunk), one of his cloaks he wore to Ren Faires and also around the house when it was cold, and the silver raven skull that Percy had given to him after a fight when Vex had been knocked unconscious on another planet due to his mistakes. It had been a sign of their turning relationship and Vax had kept it close ever since.

Percy brought his tools, not standard issue but his personal ones he had been using for years. He brought history books on their world, which he easily justified by saying it would be good for cultural sharing. He also brought his practically trademarked blue pea coat.

And Vex brought books. She brought other things of course, they all did, but what she took the most care in deciding months ago and in packing now was the books. They were harder to explain than Percy’s, but in a similar way to Scanlan and Grog, it was hard to look at Vex and tell her no. Gods knew Percy couldn’t.

When they finished packing there was really only one thing left. To spend time with their families. They had met everyone’s parents before, and first there was a party where they all got together (all the good ones at least). Wilhand and JB came, Keyleth’s father was there, Percy’s brothers and sisters stopped in, though Cassandra stayed longest.

In the few hours the party lasted Vex and Percy snuck away for some private time, which Vax unfortunately noticed and tried to wipe from his mind. Scanlan sang for everyone, Keyleth tried making a toast to inspire everyone but it devolved into some form of interpretative dance which Grog joined in on with her. Pike and Grog had a small drinking game and an arm wrestling match (Pike won both) and Vax and Keyleth spent most of the night crying and drunk talking to each other about how much they loved everyone (spending a lot of time on Vex) and how excited they were and how good everything was.

And after the hangover remedies the next day they went to spend time with their families more privately.

Vex and Percy went to see Percy’s family first. It had taken a little while for his family to trust that Vex was not looking for money or power from Percy, but once they passed that hurtle (it helped when Vex mentioned her father and how she wanted as little to do with him as possible, even if his name could have helped her get what she wanted) things were quite nice. That was years ago and now Vex was part of the family, even if it was an odd family.

They were loving, they were interesting, they cared deeply for one another, but they were also distant. They all led very different lives and while Vex saw that nobody thought lesser of another’s choices that they didn’t necessarily think anything special of those decisions either. Even Percy, who was going to be one of the first people to ever meet an alien, didn’t seem to awe them, though they were genuinely polite and supportive.

Lunch was almost a formal event, everyone seemed to know exactly where they were supposed to sit and conversation was polite, the food that was brought in by the staff was delicious, and the goodbyes were long and loving but nobody made promises or asked him to stay or come home.

Nobody but Cassandra. She had skipped her classes for the day, she was majoring in Political Science but looking at perhaps going into a Law degree instead. She hugged her brother tightly and told him to be safe. And before Vex and Percy left, Cassandra hugged Vex. Cassandra was not a very touchy person so it took Vex by surprise.

“You take care of him.” Cassandra whispered.

Vex smiled and hugged her back, “Of course, dear.”

Percy hugged his parents once more and then they set off to the more unpleasant task of seeing her dad.

Vax and Scanlan met them at the door while they waited for someone to answer.

“How has your morning been?” Vex asked her brother.

Vax smiled his goofy lovestruck smile, “We had one last date here on Exandria, at least for a while.”

Scanlan elbowed Percy and said in a low voice, “We went to one of those murder mystery brunches.”

Vex was going to ask him more about it when the door opened and a little girl launched herself at Vex. “Oh hello there darling!” Vex laughed as she caught Velora and lifted her up into her arms. “My goodness you’re getting bigger every time I see you!”

Syldor stood in the doorway and nodded formally to his children, then stiffly waved them in.

His wife brought them tea in the sitting room and Velora sat on Vex’s lap and drank from a pink teacup with roses on it while she talked on about her school.

But she was gone too soon when Syldor’s wife suggested she and Velora go do something in another room. In the end it was meant purely so they would have a moment with their father.

“When you told me you wanted to become an astronaut I was…less than supportive. But you really seem to be making a name for yourself out there. This is a very big opportunity for you both.”

Vax didn’t look up at his father. Vax was not exactly a hateful man, but he did not have time for someone who did not want to spend time on him, and he had decided long ago his father was not one worthy of his care. His father could kick him out of the house right now and Vax would likely say good riddance and find something more exciting to do for the day. The only thing that kept him there was his younger sister Velora.

Velora was the main reason Vex was there as well, but her feelings about Syldor were a little more complicated. Syldor had made it very obvious that Vex was not worth enough for him to care, that she needed to be better than anyone to be good enough. And she had spent most of her life in an attempt to prove him wrong by being the best so she could have his respect and maybe one day turn her back on him. Unfortunately she had a hard time believing she could make it there.

She had come close to telling him to go fuck himself, once she even said that if she could “pull his blood from her veins” she would. Since then the relationship had changed, Syldor was often quieter, rarely spoke about how she needed to be better, but it was always an undertone to the conversation. Which drove Percy nuts.

And today he was not having it. Percy cleared his throat. “Vex’ahlia is the mission leader to go to an entirely new solar system for the first time, talk to another intelligent alien species for the first time, and will do more firsts for our entire world than you could even imagine. She is, to put it simply, the very best our world has to offer. Both Vex and Vax were taught by the very best in each field, which I would like to note was not you, so they could be even better than any of them. To say that this is a good opportunity is an understatement of course, this is quite literally proof that she is the one of the best people on this planet, her brother being another one, and her name will be in every history book known to mankind for the rest of time. But it is pointless. Vex is not looking for an opportunity, she is looking for answers, she is looking for science, to learn, and most importantly she is looking to help people who need her. And I suggest the next time you look to the sky and think of your children you remember that they are making more of an impact in the galaxy than you are making in this city.”

After that Syldor changed. He sat back with a genuinely impressed look as he looked at his children. He nodded and raised his hands as if admitting defeat. “You are both above and beyond what I ever imagined. It is difficult for me to admit, but you have found your calling. And…I am proud of you. When you return I would like to…be better myself. For Velora’s sake at the very least. She loves the both of you so much and it has been my selfishness that has kept her from you.”

Vax raised an eyebrow as he looked at his father, “How interesting that you gave up so easily.”

Syldor sat up straight and a dignified look washed over him. Vex could see how hard he was trying to show that he did not give anything up. “I asked to see you before you left so that I could bring this up. I know we are not sure if you’ll be able to make the flight home, at least not at first, but they tell me you should be able to make contact still.”

“Rarely,” Vax tossed in.

“I hope to hear from you. To hear of your…adventurers. And I hope that you all stay safe. And keep each other safe,” he looked at Scanlan and Percy. If he had been a better father Vex would have believed it was a nice gesture, instead she felt very conflicted about it.

Scanlan taught Velora three more bad words in secret and they had some more tea and biscuits, but Percy stood before dinner could even be mentioned and held his hand out to Vex, “I believe it’s time for us to go and spend our last night here for a while doing something special.”

They said a brief goodbye to Syldor and his wife and a much longer one to their sister, promising to see her again, and then she followed Percy back to the car.

“You didn’t tell me you made plans,” she had a smile as she got in the car because she loved being surprised and Percy always had the best surprises.

“No, I didn’t,” he said with a grin and began driving.

They had dinner at their favorite restaurant, which was not particularly nice but it had good food and they went there so often that the waitress that night knew them by name. Because, as Percy explained, their last night shouldn’t be spent in a fancy place with food they might not like because it looked nice, it should be spent somewhere they loved with someone they loved.

And then he took her to an art gallery, because who knew when they would get to see human art again? Vex loved it, walking through and seeing the progression through the years and seeing a history, cultures, and emotion captured in paint for her to see. And she thought about what would be on these other planets, what new kinds of art she’d be able to see, but it was bittersweet knowing this might be the last time she ever saw something like this.

And then, as the night was coming to a close, they went to their favorite museum. They often went to museums, Percy was a huge history nerd and Vex loved to learn and loved to see Percy’s face light up when he saw something interesting or when he knew a piece of extra information that wasn’t on the plaque. But this museum beat all the others out, after all it had them in it.

The National Air and Space Museum.

They took a selfie of them standing in front of their headshots and posted them to their Instagrams. They walked through the beginning years of exploration, they looked at samples they had collected themselves, they paid respects to astronauts they knew who had passed, they joked about where the new exhibit would be, and laughed about some of the things that, while not technically false, were definitely not the actual story.

And when they left, as the museum closed, they went to one last favorite spot. There was a small forest near their home, and in the forest there was a clearing where they could lie down and look at the stars for one last night, completely alone.

And that was heartbreaking.

“Nothing will be the same,” Vex whispered.

Percy reached down between them and took her hand. He scanned the sky with her, taking it all in again. “No it won’t.”

“Scanlan made a really good point,” Percy almost made a snarky comment but held it in this once, “They may not have tattoos. It seems silly, but they may not have a lot of things. Maybe they don’t have cars, maybe you have to walk everywhere. Or maybe they teleport. Maybe that species teleports. Or maybe they won’t have water.”

“That’s why we’re bringing water with us, and worst comes to worst we can figure it out. Just like we’ll figure out the teleportation situation.” He said it lightly, not a joke but giving her space to feel like it wasn’t the end.

“But what about other things? What if they don’t have families? What if we don’t understand their political structure? What if—I don’t know what if they don’t do marriages? I mean, it’s not like marriage was necessarily something I _needed_ in my life, but I want the option.”

Percy turned his head and looked over at Vex. The woman he loved. The light in his life. It sounded ridiculous, but she was. In every dark moment, every time the world felt like too much, she had been there. And he hoped more than anything he was half of what she was to him. “So let’s do it now.”

She frowned and looked over at him, “Do what?”

“Get married.”

She laughed and it filled the clearing like music and she looked back at the stars. “Get _married_? When?”

“Tonight. Right now. We live in Emon, they have 24 hour chapels where we can get married by someone dressed as the god of our choosing or Elvis or Burt Reynolds, or by someone normal if you’d rather,” he said with a smirk. “We could go right now. It could be our secret, our thing to take with us on this adventure. We wouldn’t have to tell anyone if you didn’t want to, I’m not sure I want them to know right now. But we could do it if you wanted to.”

He watched the smile on her lips spread and she looked at him out of the corner of her eye, “It won’t mean anything out there, you know. No taxes, just our friends around us, they probably don’t even do marriages on their planets.”

“Even more of a reason, we know we’re doing it because we want to, not because we feel obligated.”

“And it would be a secret, at least for a little while, so it’s not like we’d be able to brag about it.”

“Let’s not end up like your brother and Scanlan, that’s the last thing I want.”

She sat up and bit her lip. “Alright, let’s do it. Let’s get married.”

 

They were married by someone in a powder blue suit who read some verses of Pelor’s teachings and in front of a Sun Tree outside the 24/7 chapel of Pelor, because if Percy was being married in the eyes of a god he supposed Pelor was as good as any. And then they went home and fell into the bed, holding each other and giggling and whispering “Mr. De Rolo and Mrs. De Rolo” to each other before they fell asleep as husband and wife.

And by 10 AM they were suited up, casting subtle glances to each other and their fingertips brushing every chance they got. By 1 PM they were sitting in their seats, which felt kind of like lying down because they were facing the sky. Their seats were side by side of course, Vax was on her other side.

“Ten.”

Vex turned her head to look at Percy and saw he was already looking at her with more love than she had ever imagined existing in the world, and she knew she was giving him the very same look.

“Nine.”

She mouthed, “I love you.”

“Eight.”

He smiled and mouthed it back.

“Seven.”

She stretched her hand out to him.

“Six.”

He took it and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“Five.”

They dropped their hands.

“Four.”

She looked to Vax who smiled and gave her a thumbs up.

“Three.”

She looked ahead of her and pressed her head against the seat.

“Two.”

She took one last calming breath.

“We have liftoff.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man I really liked this story and I wanted this chapter to be better, but to do what I wanted and write more dialogue and interactions and still show everything like I did here I would have needed to make it way longer and probably split it into two chapters. So I figured I would do it more jumpy and segmented like this, so I hope it's not a total fail I guess because I really loved writing this and the feelings I got from it, especially this chapter. This chapter and the first bit of the first chapter where I talked about everyone's story for getting into space (specifically Vex's and Vax's piece) were the entire reason I started this AU, so I'm glad I got to write the pieces I wanted to in a way I feel mostly proud of.  
> Some FUN FACTS about what would have happened if I had kept it going and written a post launch part where they were actually like, in space and meetings aliens:  
> There was going to be a part where I talked about what everyone did while they were on their shift awake during the trip. Everyone was going to be in cryo and someone would need to be awake to make sure everything was still good, the ship wasn't on fire and they were on course, that sort of thing. Percy read to Vex and sometimes Vex would sing to him. There were other interactions but that stuck in my head the most.  
> Allura was the blue alien from the message. I imagined her a lot like the opera singer alien from The Fifth Element.  
> Gilmore, Kima, Kynan, and most of the other really good NPCs were also aliens.  
> This was going to be a version of the Chroma Conclave arc, only if it was in space and Vox Machina wasn't there and had to be called in.  
> There were going to be a lot of different aliens. Like a lot. Gilmore was purple.  
> There was going to be a really interesting world building project I was going to do for this, you see world building is my thing. This is ultimately why I didn't do more. I'm a professional author with two books published for my trilogy, the third I need to finish this year, and two side projects that I hope to get published after. The trilogy is mostly figured out but needs to be finished, the other two I have serious world building and note book after notebook of horoscopes and gods (a few names such as Lutos were stolen from this project), characters, myths, history, science, magic, species, and all of that. I decided I couldn't take on another world building project and decided three chapters and an open ending were where this deserved to be finished. This probably comes as a relief to anyone who actually reads my Dark AU and is constantly waiting for me to update it while I instead post unrelated one shots and things. If you're reading this I apologize and I'm working on it as we speak.  
> So those were just some fun tidbits (and oversharing) that I wanted to get into the story but couldn't really write into this story.  
> I hope you guys liked it. I'm kind of sad to see this one go.


End file.
